Zion Lateef Williamson (born July 6, 2000) is an American professional basketball player for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He plays the power forward position. Following a freshman-year stint with the Duke Blue Devils, Williamson was selected by the Pelicans with the first overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft. He was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team in 2020. In 2021, he became the fourth youngest NBA player to be selected to an All-Star game. Injuries have curtailed his subsequent NBA seasons.
Williamson attended Spartanburg Day School, where he was a consensus five-star recruit and was ranked among the top five players in the 2018 class. He led his team to three straight state championships and earned South Carolina Mr. Basketball recognition in his senior season. Williamson also left high school as a McDonald's All-American, runner-up for Mr. Basketball USA, and USA Today All-USA first team honoree. In high school, he drew national attention for his slam dunks.
In his freshman and only season with Duke, Williamson was named ACC Player of the Year, ACC Athlete of the Year and ACC Rookie of the Year. He set the single-game school scoring record for freshmen in January 2019, claimed ACC Rookie of the Week accolades five times, earned AP Player of the Year, Sporting News College Player of the Year recognition, and won the Wayman Tisdale Award.
Early life On July 6, 2000, Williamson was born in Salisbury, North Carolina to Lateef Williamson and Sharonda Sampson. Lateef Williamson was a football defensive lineman at Mayo High School in Darlington, South Carolina, who was a High School All-American in 1993 and had committed to NC State before transferring to Livingstone College. Sampson was a sprinter at Livingstone and became a middle school health and physical education teacher. She named Williamson after the biblical location Mount Zion near Jerusalem, taking her grandmother's advice to name him "something extra special." When Williamson reached two years of age, following the death of his maternal grandmother, his family moved to Florence, South Carolina. By the time he was five years old, his parents had divorced. His mother later married Lee Anderson, a former Clemson college basketball player. In 2022, Williamson visited a church in New Orleans with his family.
Besides basketball, Williamson played soccer and the quarterback position in football. When he was five years old, he set sights on becoming a college basketball star. At age nine, Williamson began waking up every morning at 5 a.m. to train. He competed in youth leagues with his mother Sharonda Sampson coaching and played for the Sumter Falcons on the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) circuit, facing opponents four years older than he was. Williamson later began working with his stepfather to improve his skills as a point guard. He joined the basketball team at Johnakin Middle School in Marion, South Carolina, where he was again coached by his mother and averaged 20 points per game. In middle school, Williamson was a point guard and lost only three games in two years. In 2013, he guided Johnakin to an 8–1 record and a conference title.
High school career
Freshman and sophomore seasons Williamson attended Spartanburg Day School, a small K–12 private school in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he played basketball for the Griffins. Between eighth and ninth grade, he grew from to . In the summer leading up to his first season, Williamson practiced in the school gym and developed the ability to dunk. At the time, he competed for the South Carolina Hornets AAU team as well, where he was teammates with Ja Morant. As a freshman, Williamson averaged 24.4 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 3.3 steals and 3.0 blocks, earning All-State and All-Region honors. He also led Spartanburg Day to a South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA) state championship game appearance. In March 2015, Williamson took part in the SCISA North-South All-Star Game in Sumter, South Carolina. By his second year in high school, he stood . In his sophomore season, Williamson averaged 28.3 points, 10.4 rebounds, 3.9 blocks, and 2.7 steals per game and was named SCISA Region I-2A Player of the Year. He led the Griffins to their first SCISA Region I-2A title in program history. In June 2016, Williamson participated in the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) Top 100 camp and was its leading scorer. In August, he won the Under Armour Elite 24 showcase dunk contest in New York City.
Junior season As a junior, Williamson averaged 36.8 points, 13 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2.5 blocks per game. Starting in the 2016–17 season, Williamson was propelled into the national spotlight for his viral highlight videos. In a 73–53 victory over Gray Collegiate Academy at the Chick-fil-A Classic on December 21, he posted a tournament-record 53 points and 16 rebounds, shooting 25-of-28 from the field. On December 30, Williamson recorded 31 points and 14 rebounds to win most valuable player (MVP) at the Farm Bureau Insurance Classic. On January 15, 2017, he received nationwide publicity after rapper Drake wore his jersey in an Instagram post.
Williamson surpassed the 2,000-point barrier on January 20, when he tallied 48 points against Oakbrook Preparatory School. On February 14, he led Spartanburg Day past Oakbrook Prep for their first SCISA Region I-2A title, chipping in a game-high 37 points in a 105–49 rout. Williamson broke the state record for most 30-point games in a season, with 27 by the end of the regular season. He repeated as SCISA Region I-2A Player of the Year. High school sports website MaxPreps named him National Junior of the Year and to the High School All-American first team, while USA Today High School Sports gave him All-USA first team recognition. In June, he appeared on the cover of basketball magazine Slam.
Senior season In his senior season, Williamson averaged 36.4 points, 11.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game. On January 13, 2018, in a nationally televised game at the Hoophall Classic, he scored 36 points as his team lost to Chino Hills High School. On February 17, he posted 37 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 steals, while scoring his 3,000th career point, versus Spartanburg Christian Academy at the SCISA Region I-2A tournament. One week later, Williamson guided Spartanburg Day to its third consecutive SCISA Region I-2A championship after recording 38 points against Trinity Collegiate School.
On March 28, Williamson played in the 2018 McDonald's All-American Game, where he scored 8 points in 17 minutes before leaving with a thumb injury. The injury also forced him to miss the Jordan Brand Classic and Nike Hoop Summit in the following month. For his 2017–18 high school season, Williamson was named to the USA Today All-USA first team and MaxPreps All-American second team. He additionally earned South Carolina Mr. Basketball recognition and was runner-up for Mr. Basketball USA.
Recruiting Wofford offered Williamson his first college basketball scholarship when he was a freshman in high school. By the end of his sophomore season, he had received offers from 16 NCAA Division I programs, including Clemson, Florida, and South Carolina. On August 30, 2016, he received a scholarship offer from Duke. Entering his junior season, he was a consensus five-star recruit and was ranked the number one player in the 2018 class by recruiting service 247Sports.
In a live ESPN telecast on January 20, 2018, Williamson committed to Duke. He explained the decision, stating: "Duke stood out because the brotherhood represents a family. (Mike Krzyzewski) is just the most legendary coach that ever coached college basketball. I feel like going to Duke University, I can learn a lot from him." Duke, who had landed RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish in addition to Williamson, became the first team to land the top three recruits in a class since modern recruiting rankings began. Williamson's stepfather, Lee Anderson, remarked that Clemson lost a "mile-and-a-half lead" in recruiting Williamson.
College career
On November 6, 2018, in his first regular season game with Duke, Williamson scored 28 points on 11-of-13 shooting in 23 minutes in a 118–84 win over Kentucky at the Champions Classic. In that game, he and teammate RJ Barrett each broke the Duke freshman debut scoring record set by Marvin Bagley III. In his following game, a 94–72 victory over Army, Williamson tallied 27 points, 16 rebounds, and six blocks. He became the second player in school history to record at least 25 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 blocks in a game. Williamson was subsequently named both player and freshman of the week in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
On January 5, 2019, he had another strong performance versus Clemson, with 25 points, 10 rebounds, and a 360-degree dunk in 22 minutes. Two days later, Williamson earned ACC Freshman of the Week honors for a second time. On January 12, against Florida State, he was poked in the left eye by an opposing player towards the second half and missed the remainder of the game. Williamson returned in Duke's next game, a 95–91 overtime loss to Syracuse, and erupted for 35 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 blocks. He eclipsed the Duke freshman record for single-game points previously held by Marvin Bagley III and JJ Redick. On January 21, Williamson collected his third ACC Freshman of the Week accolade. One week later, he scored 26 points and grabbed 9 rebounds in an 81–63 victory over Notre Dame. By recording nine 25-point games in the season, Williamson set a new Duke freshman record. On February 4, 2019, Williamson was named ACC Freshman of the Week on his fourth occasion, while earning a National Player of the Week distinction from the Naismith Trophy. He had his third 30-point game of the season on February 16, scoring 32 points in a 94–78 victory over NC State. The performance helped him claim his second ACC Player of the Week and fifth ACC Freshman of the Week accolades.
In a February 20 game versus North Carolina, Williamson suffered a Grade 1 knee sprain 36 seconds into the contest after his foot ripped through his Nike shoe, causing him to slip. He did not return to the game, which Duke lost, 88–72. Nike saw the value of its stock drop by $1.1 billion the following day as a result of the incident. The injury resulted in criticism of the NCAA for not paying student-athletes. Williamson was held out from the final six games of the regular season. When the regular season concluded, Williamson earned Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors in the ACC, joining former Duke players Jahlil Okafor and Marvin Bagley III as the only recipients of both awards. Williamson was also named ACC Athlete of the Year, becoming the 10th Duke player to win the Award. He additionally made the ACC All-Defensive and All-Freshman teams. Sporting News named Williamson as its Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year.
Williamson returned from injury on March 14, posting 29 points, 14 rebounds, and 5 steals in an 84–72 win over Syracuse in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament. He shot 13-of-13 from the field, marking the best shooting performance in school and tournament history, while tying the record for the best shooting performance in ACC history. Williamson also became the first Duke player to record at least 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 steals in a game since Christian Laettner did so in 1992. The next day, he scored 31 points (including the game-winning shot) to help Duke defeat North Carolina, 74–73, in the ACC Tournament semifinals. After posting 21 points in a 73–63 victory over Florida State in the championship game, Williamson was named ACC Tournament MVP, becoming the sixth freshman to win the honor.